English Football League / Andrew French / 17 February 2008 /

Unlikely as it may seem Robins can assume leadership on Monday night, says Andrew French

When they achieved promotion to the Championship last season, there were probably few people around Ashton Gate who would have foreseen Bristol City having the chance to go one point clear at the top of the table with roughly a quarter of the season left.

However, Monday night's live Sky game with Crystal Palace offers the Robins that very tantalising prospect.

If there was one man who may have anticipated such a lofty status for the West Country club then it was manager Gary Johnson. A more positive and chirpy man you are unlikely to meet, and the City boss has a quiet yet firm belief in his side.

The former Latvian national team manager has kept his team at the head of the promotion battle all season long, and every time the pundits have predicted that City are about to fall by the wayside, Johnson and his team have continued to quietly go about their work.

They don't have too many star names but they do have a knack of winning games. How they will cope with the pressure that being in the spotlight in the final furlong of the season remains to be seen. But after 32 games, City are not where they are by luck or other team's failures - they are there on merit and may well go all the way.

Their home form is up there with the best in the Championship, and against a Crystal Palace side that is suffering a four-match winless streak after such an impressive march up the table, I think City are a stonking good bet at [2.24] to win the game and go top.

Indeed, they will have had a timely lesson in what can happen when you are offered the chance to head the table if they watched current leaders Stoke go 2-0 down to Scunthorpe on Friday night before coming back to win 3-2.

Johnson is not a man to allow complacency or anticipation to overcome his side, and with the London club hitting the buffers of late, everything points towards a home victory.

Neil Warnock had guided the Eagles from the lower reaches of the table to the play-off places but a 1-0 defeat at Leicester in front of the Sky cameras three weeks ago was the start of a four-game sequence that has increased Palace's points and goals-for column by just one each.

Warnock says he "let the players know" of his disappointment at last week's home defeat to Ipswich, and so he may well ring the changes. However, I'd still be happy to lay them at [3.8].

City have scored in the first half of each of their last five home games, and so backing City/City in the half-time/full-time market at [3.9] can be advised.

I can't see there being a goal glut and so with Under 2.5 goals available to back at [1.74] this is another option.

However, for a slightly bigger price think about backing a 2-0 City victory at [12.0], and it may be worth throwing in the 1-1 draw at [7.2] just in case Warnock's ear-bashing rouses his troops sufficiently to grind something out of the game.

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